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Children at several Boston-area horse riding facilities reap the benefits of therapeutic riding to help with sensory and motor issues. Regular riding, assisted by trained physical or occupational therapists, as well as volunteers, helps many children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, autism and microcephaly gain fine motor skills.

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Chronic pain is often triggered by trauma or illness that creates a "neuronal memory," leading to hypersensitivity. Canadian researchers found that blocking the protein kinase PKMzeta in rats stopped chronic pain by essentially erasing the neuronal memory. The findings may lead to new therapies for people suffering from chronic pain.

Veterinarian Jeff Kahler explains that a suddenly aggressive male iguana named Claude has likely just reached sexual maturity and is at the mercy of high testosterone levels. Since the iguana's aggression is directed at his owner and will recur every mating season, Dr. Kahler recommends having the pet neutered, a delicate procedure that should only be performed by a veterinarian with experience neutering iguanas.

At the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University, veterinarian James Roth runs a team of 30 veterinarians and students charged with preparing for an intentional or accidental disease threat to public health or the food supply. The center created a book on foreign animal disease that is used by veterinary schools in the U.S. and Canada and soon to be used in Central and South America. A current focus of the group is developing strategies to contain foot-and-mouth disease should it strike U.S. livestock.

Efforts to control biting midges that transmit bluetongue, a virus responsible for a 2006 epidemic in European livestock that caused significant morbidity and affected production, focused on downwind treatments of the midges, but a recent study found that 38% of midges actually moved upwind and 39% moved downwind. "This has very important implications for the control of future epidemics because previous efforts had concentrated only on downwind infection," said Luigi Sedda of Oxford University's Department of Zoology.

With guidance from Louisiana State University veterinarians, inmates at the Dixon Correctional Center care for and socialize some 60 dogs. The animals reside in a 9,500 square-foot facility on the prison grounds that now serves as an animal shelter and can be used as an emergency facility during a disaster. The inmates who work with the animals develop a sense of purpose and responsibility from their work, and many plan careers with animals upon their release.